This was a sweet read, liked the characters but the angst level and some of the events in the end of the story made it a little over the top for me. But, liked it. Definitely an author I'd pick up again. 3.5 stars. ( )

This book was really good. Let me start off by saying that even though both Matt and René are baseball coaches, the book focuses more on their relationship than the sport, which is what I was hoping for.

Matt is 30 and very much in the closet. The only person that knows that he's gay is his best friend, Emily. His father is a reverend that believes being gay is a sin, so Matt has never told anyone. He isn't in denial though. He's accepted that he's gay, but he doesn't want it to cause any strife with his family and their small town so he has come to terms with being alone.

René, on the other hand, is out and proud. His family and friends know and accept him. He's also a stellar high school baseball coach.

Matt and René meet when their teams play each other and there is an instant connection between them (and also some smoking hot sex.) They both think it was a one time thing. But, their two best friends end up hooking up and bringing them back together and from there they fall for each other.

The primary conflict in this book is the fact that Matt refuses to come out and it eventually causes pretty big problems between them. I think the author did an excellent job of showing us why Matt felt like he couldn't come out. His reasons were valid and sad.

There was a bit of a surprise toward the end that I thought was quite interesting as well.

My one small quibble with the book was that I wish Matt had apologized to René for hurting him, even though I get what he was going through.

Overall, I really liked it and will definitely read other books by this author.

*I won my copy of this book* ( )